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CDPyRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



LOVE POEMS 



THIRD SERIES 



cJ^ 



REGINALD C ROBBINS 




CAMBRIDGE 

^rinteti at €l)c Uliber^itie ^te^^ 

1912 






'p^'^^ % 



COPYRIGHT, I9IO AND I912, BY REGINALD CHAUNCEY ROBBINS 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



€ ni A n 2 a n D 7 



CONTENTS 



Page 
BARBARICS 1 

I-XIV 

AN ENDING 17 

I-X 

MILLENNIALS 29 

I-XII 

HYMENEALS 43 

I-XLVIII 

PATERNALS 93 

I-XVII 

MEMORIALS 113 

I-XVII 

MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 133 

I-XIV 



BARBARICS 



BARBARICS 



I 

Beloved ! along this Land of Barbary 

Before all days of chronicle there dwelt, 

As the tale goes, a people crude, uncouth, 

And coy of trafficking, yet awe-compell'd 

Toward honorable dealing with a world 

Beyond their ignorance. And they — their goods 

Depositing beneath the open sky 

On favorable beaches by the salt, 

White surge ; retiring landward then aloof 

Through visit of the sun-born ships — would throng 

To grasp (their guests being gone) such barter strange 

As men's sophistication granted them. 



LOVE POEMS 



II 

They nothing questioning, they grateful still, 

Though some mere flaunted rag remain'd alone 

In lieu of plumes and ivory and gold, 

Their fruits of what sore labor ! For they dream'd 

The great world as themselves in singleness — 

So judging rightly ; for the world still gave 

With fairness what their ignorance supposed 

Not valueless because world's price in full. 

And thus 1, laying ivory and gold. 

The fruit of my best labor, on the shore, 

Retire before thy visiting and wait 

What dross thou wilt : knowing thy coin is pure. 



BARBARICS 



III 

From any other these barbarians 

Had spurn'd the tinsel than that world at large 

Beyond their beach and surges. From the herd 

Of neighbor-ignorances had I scorn'd 

Aught than a full surrender, song for song, 

Spirit for spirit to eternity. 

From thee — 1 doubt me ! I had thought thee erst 

Some neighbor-wisdom. But I know myself 

Uncouth before thy subtlety, ashamed 

To meet thy stranger-hood and seek of it 

A more-or-less of truth whose test I know not ; 

To chaffer of thy chaff from over-seas. 



LOVE POEMS 



IV 

Beloved ! for that which comes from thee to me, 

Although thou slight'st it with a trivial name 

Of more-or-less, were absolute exchange 

For all I offer thee ; to balance all. 

Therefore that awe for honor in exchange, 

For rectitude above all bargaining, 

Establishes religion in the place 

Of traffic, on the shore of merchandise 

A dread depository of the gods, 

A temple in the market. And the name 

Of that thou bring'st, thine immanence divine 

Of worldhood, lieth large on all this land. 



BARBARICS 



IN sooth, within myself I had not found 

A sense of worship nor divinity ; 

But in my mountains or my plains alike 

Had roam'd a nomad — in default of thee. 

But thou, indeed, fair opener of the East, 

Thou, as the rising of the spirit-sun 

O'er Africa, affordest to my soul 

A Providence, a permanence at heart 

Of domicile and inward dominance. 

In shape of brazen Moloch though thou camest 

Devouring in the furnace these mine offspring 

Of song and soul, yet as a God wert thou. 



LOVE POEMS 



VI 



AND though Astarte in His horrid train 
Had minister'd to passion and been served 
Of every bestial impulse erst unwaked 
But haply flaming now in opulence 
Of Tyrian purple and of pearl profane, 
Yet were religion in me, and thy presence 
A purification. That the worst of me 
Is wide of outlook and of mastering faith. 
Fit to push enterprise beyond the Pales 
Of Herakles and boundaries of the world 
Half-known. For I from ignorance am raised 
By thee to be some leader among men. 



BARBARICS 



VII 

But now the contest comes and I am slain ! — 
Mine overweening arrogance of wealth, 
For gratitude to thee, proclaim'd the world 
Thy province and demanded that thy fame 
Be honor'd and worshipp'd thereupon through all 
The coasts whereto my merchandise in trade 
Took voyage with the rumor of thy might. 
But o'er thy Moloch rose thy mightier name ; 
And I thy champion am from all Jove's seas 
Driven and bodily by thee destroy'd. — 
And in my desolation but look up 
To dream new dim imperial dream of thee. 



LOVE POEMS 



VIII 

A DREAM, as ghostly of thine earlier light 
As dust-gray noontide is but ghost of dawn : 
No fervor, nothing of the glory-hues 
On cloud nor bursting sea-wave in the path 
Of red-rich sun ; but only some small disk 
In paleness (simulacrum of that blaze 
Of morning) silver- whited as the dome 
Of distant tomb upon Saharan sands. 
For everywhere hath the siroccan blast 
Blown and the sands of soul are over me. 
And thou art empty of the spirit's worth. 
For thou art Roman, mute, immovable. 



10 



BARBARICS 



IX 

Yet even this thy mood imperial 
(Impress'd upon my regions from without, 
As in old days thine earlier traffickings 
Impress'd their dominance), this very change 
To pride and rigor in thy Providence 
Exhibiteth unto my self-esteem 
Mine own self -alteration ; yea, a soul 
Grown worldly-wise, sophisticated, sunk 
Beneath all innocence. For I not now 
Accept for proof of justice each decree, 
Nor fancy charity and singleness 
Beneath thy calm. I fear thy policy. 



II 



LOVE POEMS 



And when thy policy makes mock and sport, 
Adopting for disguise of pagan pride 
And sated sophistry the badge of Christ, 
And calling thy love-stultifying code 
The soul-regeneration taught of Him ; 
When thou establishest upon my shores 
The presbyters schismatic, and the crime 
Of persecutions by the councillors, 
And everywhere rebellions in the name 
Of cant, and execrations customary. 
Anathema under thy gospel law : 
Then shrink I from all reverent thought of thee. 



12 



BARBARICS 



XI 



Thou hypocrite and tyrant unaware, 

In name of love, oppressive to despise 

Thy vassal State with surtax 'd exilehood. 

Well were it for me that the Vandal horde 

O'erthrow thy hyperdominance and leave 

Me naked, destitute, cast forth to wolves. 

And craved of foul hyenas. For thy power 

Is broken ; destroy'd by those who with no thought 

Of aught than plunder pillage all away 

The paganhood, the Roman heathenness ; 

And bring thee, through destruction, finally 

To possibility of some rebirth. 



13 



LOVE POEMS 



Xll 

FOR thou, thou dost, one moment, offer me 
Suggestion of thy splendor Byzantine ; 
But find'st my spirit broken and my coasts 
Habitantless, I being all burn'd and slain. 
Though, since, hath some dark pirate-brood inflow'd 
And fill'd these spaces with a rioting 
Within what once was I ; and all my shores 
And neighbor-plains must learn their peace anew ; 
Who am some stranger in mine own domain ; 
Who see some other than my wonted self 
Concern'd in bloody feud and baseness there. 
For I myself am ended anciently. 



14 



BARBARICS 



XIII 

Perchance thou art returning with thy ships 

And merchandise ; the modern world whole-known 

Anew impressive on this Barbary 

Of latter days ? But art thou that fresh spirit 

Of early ages to mine innocent dawn ? 

Or but some charnell'd effigy of hope ? — 

I know not. Thou and I alike are changed ; 

Alike have lived our African lost day ; 

And, in its dust and whirlwind suffocate, 

Experienced sink out of singleness — 

To know suspicion and a safe distrust. 

I love thee ; but would welcome not thy love. 



15 



LOVE POEMS 



XIV 

This Land of Barbary : it is not tliine, 
Hath outlived love-religion ; shrinks within 
My desert fastnesses — though yielding thee 
The seaports and the cultivable plains : 
Itself uncultured as unconquerable. — 
Forbear ! Shall I, my goods depositing 
Upon salt beaches, at the last go crazed 
With sentience of the chaff thou leavest there, 
The flaunted rags for ivory and gold ? 
Forbear ! I send thee song fit for thy song. 
Spirit for spirit. But thine own, deny me ! 
Withhold communion ! — Lest I learn thy soul ! 



i6 



AN ENDING 



AN ENDING 



I 

I HAVE loved thee, beloved, so long and well, 

So wholly hath my life belong'd to thee 

And been thy daily breathings and thy thoughts 

(My body and my mind alike thyself). 

That there is somewhat not to be believed 

In this thou tellest me, some dread mistake, 

An error scarce ascribable to thee. — 

If thou hast done this death unto my heart, 

Hast plighted troth to any other troth 

Than mine, assuredly a wrong is wrought 

Beyond imagination. For thy soul 

Hath taken from me my soul without consent. 



19 



LOVE POEMS 



II 

I DREAM not that thou plightedst e'er thy troth 

To me or gavest assurance to my love 

Of loving recompense. But thou didst hold 

Thy whole life open to my worship of it 

Beyond least let or hindrance evermore, 

Giving assurance that I still might love. 

Nay, worse; thou knewest that I, loving thee thus, 

Rightly were self-assured. — When the first flash 

Of flame toward that other took fire in thee, 

Thou shouldst have borne thy share of sacrifice 

A little, and stifled an unseemliness ; 

Not now demand me that I face thy fault. 



20 



AN ENDING 



III 



I AM pass'd-master in the art to evade 

Full fall of disappointment : being in want 

From my youth up of many a subterfuge, 

If I would go uncrazed from dawn to dawn. 

I had devised a Self wherein thy joy 

Might semblance bear as 't were my very own 

By much sophistication. I might learn 

To dwell, despite heart's lethal injury. 

In contemplation of thine happiness 

Entering into mine unhappy heart 

And still sustaining me about thy world. 

But now my limbs swoon vague upon the earth. 



21 



LOVE POEMS 



IV 

1 MIGHT achieve, beyond mere meriting 

Of me or thee, to labor in the strength 

Of ineradicable inward wrath 

To rectify a world where wrath can be 

In love's despite, where love can be despised 

And thou canst flourish for reward of wrong. 

The curse inexorable that I face 

Might serve to fuse at a blast a world anew, 

Cast our stone-absolute antagonism 

To basis of some cosmic tragedy. 

1 might attain to hate, and move the world. 

But now I love thee and myself am moved. 



22 



AN ENDING 



I SPEAK not for my pitiful poor self, 

Save as I love and so am deep and great 

And have love's mighty rights to be maintain 'd. 

Thy trespass is upon the ground of soul, 

Turning mine heart to strange unrighteousness 

Which was so holy in the love of thee. 

By these effects shall thine offence be judged. 

Transgression measured by this fall of me : 

Whose Law is changed to a forbidden thing. 

Yet wilt thou vow : ' My love for him hath claim 
' As his for me : beyond thy finite rights, 
* Mutual criterion of morality ! * 



23 



LOVE POEMS 



VI 

1 BLAME thee that thou didst not stifle love 

At the first fume : who plead myself but love 

For judgment on thee ! I, who point thy fault, 

Brand thee but with the name of mine own sin ! 

It boots not to adduce the proven truth 

My love was every hour so deep and strong 

'T would serve for both, me, thee, and world beside, 

Being within itself creative-whole ! 

It boots not to make boast of prior claim 

By service long and honorably maintain'd 

Through all repulse. Such privilege enjoy'd 

But layeth on me mine obligation more. 



24 



AN ENDING 



VII 

Ay, in that name of love which I did cite, 

Lifteth before my spirit the love of thee 

For him : demanding that the fact I hold 

Of wreck and ruin, proving fault in thee, 

Alter to some new strange nobility 

Of absolute sacrifice, of love's self-end 

In immolation, wiping out all stain 

Of sin in thee with my surcease of soul. 

The call hath come : My life, to purge from thine 

The stigma of mine immorality. 

Who, living, love thee loving otherwhere. — 

Allow me to sink out of thee ashamed. 



25 



LOVE POEMS 



VIII 

Thou hast through every hour of all my love 
Been but too gracious to my desperate need : 
Forgiving all ; if nought thou yet couldst give. 
Do now this last grace that I ask of thee, 
Forgive thou (as thou every while forgavest) 
Even whilst thou hatest me. — For I forgive thee ; 
And needs were, thou forgav'st even that at last. 

1 fix my faith upon thy years to-come 
Of seraph-happiness, if so may be ; 
Bless in my breast thy bitter memory — 
Beyond that, nothing. I myself alone 
Depart : no world before me where to choose. 



26 



AN ENDING 



IX 

Earth's outcast. — For unto myself alone 
I now return and that which I find there : 
Ashes, dismay and desolation as 
Of some vast holocaust of shattering spheres. 
No world beside. For thou wast my world all. 

Yea, from the depths of that dumb lovelessness 

Which preys upon the solitary years 

Thy spirit lifted me to tell of truth 

In universal tongue. The truth is told, 

To the dark dregs. The last of all thy songs 

Is sung, and endeth in a lost soul's wail : 

Thy flaming sword the last truth I may know ! 



27 



LOVE POEMS 



The song dies slowly. And its end of breath 
Fain would be wasted in a mortal plea 
For mercy, succor, for thy saving soul 
Once more as formerly : when all its thought 
Should turn toward absolution. Yea, its breath 
Swoons slowly, for there is so much to say 
Of uttermost confession contritely. — 

Depart in peace, thou, if thou waitest still. 
The rest is inarticulance and gasps. 
The last grim grisly struggle to leave life 
With decent dignity were scarce for thee 
To hear — for that, I have loved thee too well. 



28 



MILLENNIALS 



MILLENNIALS 



I 

There are who dream the world is growing old ; 

Too like, indeed, unto a spent machine ; 

They who themselves, like some spent mechanism, 

Do dumbly feel unto themselves alone 

A weariness and heart-ache of the world. 

As one by one into the years of wane 

Their hopes and their desires do waste away 

Till all is wan and nothing wonderful 

Of any that seem'd wonderful erstwhile, 

Nor aim of hope nor hope-desire within them 

More. And with these I lately was as one. 

But now am otherwise, who hope in Thee ! 



31 



LOVE POEMS 



II 

Alas ! it were not as a mechanism 

That world might weary and within herself 

(As they within themselves who hope not in thee) 

Grow old and tend toward the verge of death 

Forewarning, palpable. For what machine — 

Save by some pitiful figure of our speech — 

May weary and faint upon the spirit's end 

As did myself among those hearts self-spoil'd : 

Hearts fashion 'd not with hands, but each himself 

Unto himself his own of origin, 

Each one ? What mechanism were the soul 

That seeth herself by her own fault foregone ? 



32 



MILLENNIALS 



III 

BELOVfiD, and hence the sorry tragedy 

Of isolation eating at the heart 

That dumbly suffers, forsooth, because in truth 

She were not, could not be, as some machine 

Whereof her weakness and decadence seem'd 

A simulacrum. World were no machine 

To spend itself uncognizant of death. 

Nor reach the weakening of pale decay 

Without an agony — as I with mine 

Made sorry struggling through the years, ere thou 

Camest like morning to the star-worn soul. 

Mature unto thy watcher of the night. 



33 



LOVE POEMS 



IV 

Thou dayspring ! and thou youth of all the world 
Immortal by iife-sacrificial grace 
Instant-eternal to the uplifted heart 
Of him who greets thee ; him no longer dumb 
But overbursting with thy harmony ! 
Thee the melodic utterance of the world 
Greets in the soul of me to make thee see 
The marvels of thy making : who alone 
Hast proven desire alive and hope, like light, 
Our heritage ; thyself who, though of earth, 
Speak 'st with the mouth of angels, ay, with voice 
Of heaven, prophetic in thine immanence. 



34 



MILLENNIALS 



Out of the mouth, I ween, of innocence 
Is strength ordain'd and wisdom to the wise 
Beyond their wisdom : as thy loveliness 
Leans out of heaven to herald the sweet day ! 
The soul, although mature, is as the world 
Young yet forever ; and the tragedy 
Relegate now at last unto the past ; 
And hope hath meaning to futurity : 
A hope the sweeter, loftier, deeplier felt — 
In contrast of the foregone pessimism ; 
A conquest self-assured but that the night 
Hath been, which now is no more anywhere. 



35 



LOVE POEMS 



VI 

There are, beloved, who would assure me yet 

How night ensueth on the fairest day ; 

How, as the waning of the stars did spring 

To thee indeed, so yet a waning comes 

Even of thyself, that there be night anew 

Ten thousand times more sombre, tenebrous 

By poignant deprivation ; and an age 

More hideously deathward but that life 

And hope and high desire have been through thee ! 

They little know the wisdom which transcends 

Their gross interpretance material : 

The spirit of love perpetual in thy face I 



36 



MILLENNIALS 



VII 

The spirit-principle involved, by proof, 
In thee, in any system which could bring 
Thee to perfection and itself in thee ! 
The doctrine of a worth intrinsical 
Unto itself and unto all things else 
In all thou lightest or that look on thee. 
Therefore am I, or world, not night at wane 
Nor daylit earth to wane at eve, but one 
Reciprocal inspiration as of love 
Which prospers either by the breath of each 
So scarce may perish ! Such the spirit is 
Which taketh up the tale of truth with thee. 



37 



LOVE POEMS 



VIII 

Oh, from the first thou walkedst, though alone, 
Serene in love and utter loveliness. 
And this thy heart-heaven-opening hath but been 
An evolution and a ripening 
Of prescience aye inherent. From the first 
Dost thou and thou alone explain the world. 
Even heart's sickening and the gross decay 
In dogmatism material can but be 
Self-comprehended by thy truth of love, 
Fore-implicate in yearning lightlessly 
Unto the dawn, that doth declare all things 
While lapping all in thy light-comforting. 



38 



MILLENNIALS 



IX 

AND if of thy millennium they may say 
The world 's unworthy, disregarding proof 
Of innermost inherence of thy soul 
Within us (that our very fault, at worst, 
Of mock-despair finds ground in need of thee 
Inherent to thy worldship !) — then must I 
Accept my worthlessness as proof of thee, 
Sure aspect of the system of thy soul 
Which, being all-sacrifice, salvationwise 
Requireth of her world a world to save : 
And therefore saves not as by miracle 
But as by nature of our worthlessness. 



39 



LOVE POEMS 



The wonder were, beloved, had the world 

Been not unworthy, had there been a way 

By merit to achieve millennium ! 

Now, dear, 'twere nature, and not miracle. 

For this were nature : that the world should want 

Salvation, being encumber'd of the sin 

Of worldhood ; and that thou shouldst 'spoil thy soul 

For infinite grace of granting world a soul 

In sheer self-immolation — as thou art 

Beyond me, yet by love my God-within ! 

Had I been worthy to receive thy love, 

The wonder had precluded loving thee. 



40 



MILLENNIALS 



XI 

'T WERE wonder thus sufficient, that thou seest 

The marvels of thy making yet self-made — 

In nature of the self-response to thee 

Of that eternity of life-in-death, 

Which thine imperishable sacrifice, 

Of self in grace toward my world of need 

And sin of worldhood, self-establishes, 

For heaven and wonder, through the ways and 

works 
Of love the self-creator. No * machine ' 
Devolves to senseless ruin senselessly. 
Nor any tragedy obtains: though earth 
Be growing old. For age is more-of-thee. 



41 



LOVE POEMS 



XII 

Earth's age were thus the fraught experience 

Of soul's best possibilities, of heart's 

Enthusiasm, self-desirous aye 

And disappointed never of the love 

And linkage of thy spirit; as our life 

Is mutual-responsive utterly. 

There are who say the world is growing old — 

Too like, themselves, unto some spent machine 

In inappreciation. But I too 

Declare world old in self-experience 

Of youth, of cumulation, ay, of thee ; 

Richer by every hour of heaven's day. 



42 



HYMENEALS 



HYMENEALS 



I 

The daily sweetness of this life with thee 
And nightly wonder : these the sun and stars 
Duly attest. Their risings and their settings 
Are witness hourly to the light of thee 
As of thy love, thy love lighting the world. 
Thus as the sun and stars thy risings and 
Thy lyings down are life unto the world, 
Its motion and its impulse. In thy peace. 
Passing all understanding of the spheres, 
May earth or star or sun alike perform 
Its perfect function. And within thy peace 
I ponder of the life of sun and stars. 



45 



LOVE POEMS 



II 

FOR in the peace past understanding springs 

The wisdom of serenity, the sight 

Beyond mere sight of stars or suns or earths, 

Beyond sphere-wisdom, penetrating things 

With sweet suffusion of the spiritual. 

Not nature now, but in all natural truths 

Thy truth of nature, thy suffusion, Sweet, 

Irradiating and ethereal : 

Transforming to an intropermeance 

Unlike mere space-projection — I with thy truth 

Transfused, irradiated and transform'd 

To somewhat of thy spirit : that I see. 



46 



HYMENEALS 



III 

It were not that the world without us twain 

Hath swept in stark vacuity away, 

And we left staring. Sun and stars are yet 

And earth to stand on "under day and night : 

As ever was ; as ever shall be now. 

But, where all suns and stars were shaken with 

The whirlwind of my passion and would pass 

To chaos disestablish 'd ; there thy love 

Hath reestablish 'd heaven within this earth 

In lasting function of a firmament. 

And space is order'd ; and its motions are 

Thy life and mine, self-lumined, self-distinct. 



47 



LOVE POEMS 



IV 

Wherefore this rehabilitated scheme 
Of earth, this system of the sun and stars 
Made over new in image of thy soul, 
Invites the serious scrutiny of one 
Long used to meditation though without 
The light internal as vouchsafed me now. 
And to this serious scrutiny of things 
Thy light impels me, lest it fall to waste 
For any want of truths illuminable 
Within me to thy lamping. So I scan 
And search the meaning of this cosmic scheme 
Proved intropermeable of thy soul. 



48 



HYMENEALS 



So from the first (if any first there be 

Of unbegun, interminable time 

Or life unbounded in its inwardness), 

So from the first must there at least have been 

Some mutualism, some inter-response 

Of stuff to stuff, pre-constituting soul. 

Howbeit there seem'd but thou and I, apart 

And several one from one as any star 

From any star ; yet by the logic-sign 

Of me and thee, of being but each distinct 

Each stuff of starhood, stood intended aye 

Love's self-response, thought's interpenetrance. 



49 



LOVE POEMS 



VI 

And thus from hour to hour as we did grow 

More self-aware (as any star or earth 

Or creature each of earth did cumulate 

Experience of selfhood severally) 

Must every hour of novelty involve 

A reinterpretation of the old, 

A novel understanding ; must the past 

Of space-position's externality 

Prove no mere passing, but its dissipance 

Exhibiteth unto the new love-mood 

The old love-inkling. And the world hath grown 

Great step by step but by self-potency. 



50 



HYMENEALS 



Vll 



'T IS true that love's awakening 's gone-by 
Even as the dayspring and the early life 
Of nebule nuclear, which only seem'd 
Sweet in itself maybe but promising 
No wonders of the noon's humanity — 
'T is true ; but in the passing it hath gain'd 
The love-interpretance, the human mood 
Which shows it to itself a seed of love 
And forecast of an high intelligence. 
Though we have lost, like earth, our severalty 
Of independence, yet the acknowledged loss 
Transforms the lost to value that hath been. 



51 



LOVE POEMS 



VIII 

Value that otherwise were 'neath esteem, 
Were nothing for remembrance : that our past 
Had never seem'd worth living, could not now 
Be basis of earth's high self-cherishing! 
That we are dear each unto each, that truths 
Of earth are self-felt, spiritual, springs 
Not solely in the moment's rapture, rests 
In estimation of the past now proved 
Worth love's appreciation. As we came 
From self-respect, as earth did never lack 
Of fact distinctive, can we truly yield 
A worthy union and a mutualism. 



52 



HYMENEALS 



IX 

AND spirituality is but the name 
New-given for the self-respect of old ; 
And man's humanity but nature-fruit 
Of nebulosity. 'T is true, that with 
Each operation of the interplay, 
Of self-transfusion and the act of thought, 
Still wanes out of our humanism, Love, 
The old self-mastery. The mystery 
Requires the sacrifice. We are not now. 
Nor earth, nor star, nor creature of them all, 
Quite thou nor I, quite star nor earth nor man. 
But we are that which every truth would be. 



53 



LOVE POEMS 



Though scarce for final nor for final state 
Of love's development interminable 
Precluding possibility of pause ! 
From love to love must love ever remove 
Its present-felt perfection ; as all earth, 
Though in each creature earthlily fulfill'd 
And inwardly triumphant, may not cease 
Its soul-recomplication, groweth still 
To novel triumph ; even so our love, 
At every moment perfect, waxeth with 
The further time's perfection — inwardly 
The same fulfilment, ever to evolve. 



54 



HYMENEALS 



XI 

And need we fear, or earth, a waning-time 
When ebbs the tide and every emptiness 
Lies bare and putrid to the taste of death 
Because of acme and accomplishment 
Which by some law of sad reaction must 
Become relinquishment and vanishing ? 
Because we wholly love (and earth is man), 
Must we expect that life's superlative 
Must cease, and drouth succeed humanity ? 
Perchance the fear had held, if only less- 
And-more of earthhood had preceded man, 
If merely thou or I had ever been. 



55 



LOVE POEMS 



XII 

But, faith, 'tis otherwise. Sith we have proven 
Humanity in any cosmic stuff, 
Love-triumph in the fact of thee and me 
Recognizant, distinct whilst several, thus 
May man assume, or love, that by each step 
Of cosmic alterance, despite the loss 
Of severalty and the power of each. 
Springs evidence of soulhood. And the loss 
Proves but a name for love-development 
By realization of the mutual self. — 
Wherefore no loss of any power of thee 
Or me, or earth, but is some proof of growth. 



56 



HYMENEALS 



XIII 

And growth being, as we know, the perfect love, 

The absolute humanity, so nought 

Of waning would be otherwise than erst : 

One aspect merely and a name of soul — 

Her self-abhorrence of mere self-respect, ; 

Her self-conatus unto mutualism. 

Earth hath its growth, its humanhood, throughout 

Its incident impenetrable ; soul 

Her involution though the star turn ash. 

And in her self-fulfilment thrive all things, 

As every act were a more perfect love 

Unto the term of truth interminable. 



57 



LOVE POEMS 



XIV 

Therefore, with worship unforebodingly 

Of any world-degeneration, with 

An heart uplift unto divinity, 

I chronicle thy coming and thy care 

Of earth and me, thy cosmic providence. 

For, like the luminous enrapture of 

The elemental nebulae, thy life 

Became as mine, or seem'd so to become. 

Whilst nuclear distinct. And thou hast been, 

Though not myself, this principle of peace 

Unto my yearning; that which earth or star 

Senseth within of godhood for its own. 



58 



HYMENEALS 



XV 



A PROPHECY had been how to my life 
Of chaos would a formulation come 
Natural, universal, personal 
As any god-suffusion ; that my truth 
Of man, by warrant of the woman-need 
In uttermost fulfilment, might achieve 
An high normality, completion by 
The complementation of thy womanhood. 
A prophecy had been, but unbelieved. 
Yet, ere I knew thy presence, to my heart 
Had come thy heart and had abided there 
Unknown, and grown the nature of my souU 



59 



LOVE POEMS 



XVI 



'T IS thus with any cosmos, that its form 
Achieves itself transfusedly, unlike 
An outward imposition ; till the gleam 
Of inwardness declareth inmostly 
The crystallization. Thy truth crystal-like 
(Primordial rudiment of organism 
Earth-immanent) proclaim'd thee to my truth 
The wisdom, clarifying my world all : 
Even as some sea and sky, made firmament. -=« 
And of thy speech my speech acknowledged 
straight : 

* The woman knoweth ; and is come to turn 

* Mine ignorance to knowledge of itself.' 



60 



HYMENEALS 



XVII 

The clear sea brimm'd beneath us with a beam 
Of depth auroran ; and the conscious sky 
Received into its height the searching gaze 
Of thee and me, and recompensed it there 
With crystal meaning. And the chaos-flood, 
The pathlessness and poignance of the night 
Within me, burst in azure on thy brow 
And in thine eyes crystalline recompensed 
Years of misunderstanding ; yea, being told. 
Was comprehended. And intelligence 
Brimm'd as the sea and sky betwixt us both 
About us, bathing both in blessedness. 



6l 



LOVE POEMS 



XVIII 

And (as the crystal morning of the world 

Before the passion of its plasma was) 

Seem'd self -declared though as without self-heat 

The mutual insight, truth demark'd from truth. 

Within me was the firmament, a sky 

O'er-arch'd in clarity above a base 

inimitably broad, blue-luminous 

And liquid with the new-won immanence 

Transfusing every deep limpidity. 

And if thou wast the light of the sun that wrought 

This crystal marvel to mine ignorance, 

1 knew 'twas thou, wast firmament as well. 



62 



HYMENEALS 



XIX 

And also within thee, so thou hast said, 

Though sun and firmament thou wast in me, 

Seem'd similar awakening, a sense 

Of clarification and of truth by me — 

I within thee some sun, some sea and sky 

Of fair fluidity, establishment 

Like unto morning, keen without self-heat 

Yet formal crystalwise ; the sky from sea. 

Yea, both from light that wrought the truth of both 

Distinct, yet perfectly transfused with sight 

Of that I brought thee — the discerning soul. 

Thus thou and I declared soul to herself. 



63 



LOVE POEMS 



XX 

And thus for days or hours (the ages of 
Earth ere earth bore the plasma of self-heat), 
For days or hours, I wot not which, there dream'd 
This mighty morning of a mutual love. 
Love ever from the first, love ere we knew 
Love's imputation, love by self-respect 
Of either truth alone, now each distinct 
By mutual relation. Sea and sky 
(Discover'd of sun's fiat) wax'd to warmth. 
Warmth gradual, suffusive ; and within 
The warmth evolved the germ ; inly to both, 
The phyton-organism vegetant. 



64 



HYMENEALS 



XXI 



FOR as some fervid forest 'neath the rays 
Of old primeval suns, or torridwise 
The associant unction of the cellule born 
Of plasma pulsant and self-functional, 
Did thou and I, evolving each in each 
A fervor, spring associative twain 
Upwards beneath the tropic sky, like growth 
Of greenery self-contain 'd in ardor, yet 
Conative cell to cell agglomerant. 
Loneliness, undiscover'd of that truth 
Call'd firmament, betwixt the firmaments 
Drew each to each in organism there. 



65 



LOVE POEMS 



XXII 



Thus had the world achieved its forest-truth, 
Its self-intelligence of crystal form 
Absorb'd, diffused and brought to functioning 
Associant, conative. Thou, both, and I, 
Sprung upwards to the light, each within self 
Found satisfaction by the counter-self 
Associant. And warmth within us both 
Began pulsation. And the forest-forms 
Of swarth palm-tracery and umbrage dim 
Inwoven of wonder-flowers all around 
Seem'd image of our intercourse, our speech 
More intimate-inwoven hour by hour. 



66 



HYMENEALS 



XXIII 

As sea and sky unto the forest-pulse 

Remain for crystalline formality 

Without them, while within the dim sap-cell 

Worketh a wisdom operant beyond 

Their vision'd clarity, so on thy word 

And in thy fair and sweet intelligence 

My spirit lived, feeling the fair and sweet 

For wise assurance ; whilst none less the world 

Gleam'd limpid, instant to intelligence 

Erst dubious : intelligence even now 

(Save for the sense of wise assurance gain'd) 

Prey but to loneliness' self-diffidence. 



67 



LOVE POEMS 



XXIV 

But with the sense of need grew pace by pace 

The sure association ; with the cell's 

Instinctive inference of firmament 

And want of sun and suction to its life 

Wax'd means of satisfaction through the growth 

Of fair agglomeration outwardly. 

Earth did achieve, unto the ends of love 

Ever within it as informing germ, 

Not merely first the clear formality 

Of morning sea and sky, but, at the need, 

The noon of fervor and the generous green 

Of truth assuaged in truth-society. 



68 



HYMENEALS 



XXV 

Thus thou and I together grew among 
Those fervid isles. And our companionship 
Became a greenery, beneath the sun, 
Of vegetant dependence. And the fronds 
Of many a filmy interwoven arch 
Combined our spirits ; and the beauty-blooms 
Of mutual confidence burst sheath about us 
And in our souls made pleasant paradise ; 
As earth before the advent of the curse 
Of passionate animation. — Not that earth, 
Nor confidence nor truth of firmament 
Were passionless ! For all are names of love. 



69 



LOVE POEMS 



XXVI 

But, that in growth of earth or human soul 

Cometh a season of perfervidness ; 

The hours just past the noon ; the plasmic pulse, 

Permitted self-perpetuance animate 

By perfect function of amalgamance ; 

An adolescence of the cosmic frame 

(Before the peace of eve-maturity 

And spirit-sight past understanding) ; cometh 

That mighty need perfectly to possess 

And wreak the purpose of a progeny — 

Else fail in dissolution, self-despair 

And loneliness past cosmic sufferance. 



70 



HYMENEALS 



XXVII 

Earth's hour had come ; the unction animate 

Of plasm had burst the vegetative bound 

(Not passionless, because some name of love; 

Yet casual chiefly and agglomerant) . 

The rich perfervor of the cosmic hour 

Of adolescence was upon our souls, 

Self-forced unto desire to be possess'd 

And wreak thereby to perpetuity 

A self-possession. At an instant's touch 

Fired the plasmic pulse associant 

To passion-animation. And the earth. 

Or soul, stood peopled to astonishment. 



71 



LOVE POEMS 



XXVIII 

WE loved, as in our meaning we had come 

To self-confession, mutual consciousness 

Of polarism organic ; thou and I 

Essential each to each ; the cosmic form 

Of firmament, the vegetative pact 

Of plasma-function, germ-companionship, 

Resolved to union and amalgamance 

Whilst none less self-distinctive. And the poles 

Of thee and me, by heat precipitate, 

Confronted each the other as with force 

Of confluence essential, needing each 

Heart's uttermost surrender — would we live. 



72 



HYMENEALS 



XXIX 

Therefore the world took on the passion-face 

Of human yearning. The civility 

Of forest-interarch took on the stress 

Of civilization ; that betwixt us two 

Stood humanist convention separating 

From satisfaction soul's new-conscienced need. 

Creation groan'd that through earth's animate 

Love-leading came the sad-won sense of sin 

Potential ; came necessity to pause 

Before the soul-regeneration, wait 

The course of world-adjustment ere the spirit 

Unite to heaven on earth and chasten 'd peace. 



73 



LOVE POEMS 



XXX 

The haunts of men were all about us now, 

Earth's civilization, ay, and humanism. 

And in our hearts an higher humanism 

Repress'd, half-hearten 'd by the ways of a world - 

Ways recognized, deeplier than ere these hours, 

For righteous in conventionality. 

Convention, man's protectorate of man, 

Lay heavily upon us, that within 

Were stern suppressions, self-pretence at strength 

Half-independent. Yet the period 

Of earth's adjustment and heart's biding-time 

But served soul-recapitulation well. 



74 



HYMENEALS 



XXXI 

For, sooth, the soul, once sprung to see herself 

In earth's environment, must find within 

The microcosm. And thy soul and mine 

By reason of the self-repression still 

From perfect union and possession, grew 

Familiar of the lesser ways of life 

Within world's mutual circuit, did examine 

By conscience of new-won enthusiasm 

All erst-won informations — from the first 

Of nebule nuclear the gamut run 

Of evolution through the life of each : 

Erst several, now mutually whole. 



75 



LOVE POEMS 



XXXII 

And thus anew we builded up our souls 
From their foundations, finding each in each 
And through experience by strength of love 
New valuations ; that, like earth by light 
Of love-evaluation, proved all years 
Of past soul-singleness some seed of love 
And proof of mutuality. How sweet 
The disregarded days of childhood ; ah ! 
The lonelier Wanderjahre rich with store 
Of strange romanticism as earth's days 
Revived of protocryptic flowerets fossil'd 
And uncouth quaint pateosaurii ! 



76 



HYMENEALS 



XXXIII 

How sweet their obsolescence in the wonder 

Of mutual modernity and faith 

In future beauty of amalgamance ! 

How fair the reminiscence ! For our souls 

Day by day more conform'd within themselves 

Each to the absolute informing force 

Of either, proven self's alter-inference 

And objectivity of spirit- world. 

The world within unto the world without 

Made symphony ; and the remember'd past 

Sustain 'd the expected harmonies, resolved 

Through sane suspension. That our faith would sing! 



77 



LOVE POEMS 



XXXIV 

So, when the days of earth's convention came 

To termination and the moment was 

Of world-regeneration, stood our souls 

Mature, replete within with every type 

Of all creation's yearning ; microcosm 

With microcosm grew amalgamate 

And enter'd on the pure possessive strength 

Of uttermost surrender — each a world 

By inmost involution ; valuing 

And self-evalued ; ready for the test 

Of definite eternity through all 

Time-alterations of the common weal. 



78 



HYMENEALS 



XXXV 

For hitherto had each event at best 

Seem'd temporal merely, truth succeeding truth 

Displaced, despite the informing love therethrough ; 

And moment unto moment, of itself. 

Succeeded presently with scarce regard 

For universal bearing. But ; with sense 

Of perfect perpetuity by force 

Of mutual possession, passionate 

Inference toward objective progeny 

In every act possessive ; came at last 

Earth's sense of wholeness, world's self-inference, 

Realized of the instant by the marriage-bond. 



79 



LOVE POEMS 



XXXVI 

FOR therein by the marriage of true souls 
Absolves the sin-stain of possessiveness ; 
And self-appropriation but provides 
The perfect freedom ; for within our world 
We stood, two worlds at one ; self-reconciled 
Unto all counter-objectivity 
Within love's all-subjective. And I took 
Thee to myself and, making thee my wife, 
But gave thee all of me. And we as one. 
Though outwardly distinct, pass'd out of earth 
(That earth of thee and me and merely man) 
Into the life of earth's millennium. 



80 



HYMENEALS 



XXXVII 

And therefore with an heart uplift and spirit 

Inspective, apperceiving of the ways 

Of star or sun, of firmament, or plasm, 

Yea, and of animate passioning and sin, 

I chronicle the ways of God-in-man, 

The eternal involution presently 

Within our daily greetings ; knowing well. 

Thy risings and thy lyings down for truths 

Of universal perpetuity 

By moralism, love-exonerating 

The passion and perfervor, plasmic pulse 

Or firmamental ardor of the spheres — 



LOVE POEMS 



XXXVIII 

All yearning upward, all attaining thee, 

And in thee self-attain'd beyond relapse 

Or fear of isolation. For all things 

In thee and in thy soul-morality 

Rise beyond need of propagation, feel 

The eternity beyond mere progeny, 

Achievable in world-acknowledgment 

By love-inception. That our whole world sings 

The human way of won divinity, 

Projects self objectwise upon the face 

Of the chaos-indeterminate, to prove 

Determinism self-controll'd of Art. 



82 



HYMENEALS 



XXXIX 

For lo ! we have seen earth's indeterminism 

Of chaos self-confronted to the form 

Of firmament, and have through firmament 

Risen to civilization and respect 

For personality, intelligence 

Determining the truth-humanity 

In indication of the life of love. 

And love we have seen declared in love's first 

phase 
Of clarification, else of passioning 
And ripe possession — personality 
Absolved in personalism mutual ; 
And progeny — for some eternity. 



83 



LOVE POEMS 



XL 

But in the chronicle whose text is love 

Springs the achievement myriadwise beyond 

That first possessive proof of moralism. 

In the love-moralistic life of thee 

And me in proved possessive self-response 

Thrive multiple possibilities of act, 

Act spiritually superior 

In the mutual-self's expression of regard 

For universal soulhood. If such act 

Of personal propagation first declared 

Truth's world-divinity, yet in that wisdom 

Aspires indeed, though scarce attains, the God ! 



84 



HYMENEALS 



XLI 

And so — love lending the criterion 

By force of recognition in the soul, 

Through fruit of action, of the objective worth 

Unaltering, everlasting to the fact 

Of mutuality and influence 

(Of self-felt alterance beyond the self) — 

Begins the spirit-life, evaluation 

To every act by comprehension through 

Insight of purposed import. And each act 

Stands judged, self-judged, in virtue of degree 

Attain'd of self-responsibility, 

Through works, for purposed import world-express'd. 



85 



LOVE POEMS 



XLII 

The need were for the alter-inference 

Of the self-recomplication — not the body 

Begun anew by blend as of two strains 

Themselves supposed establish'd and thereby 

Render'd susceptible of iterance ; 

But rather the spirit, through self-sympathy 

For every purposed import, comprehending 

The world's love-mood and furthering therethrough 

The interplay and process of all souls : 

Through rendering intelligible aid 

Unto the understanding presently 

Of thee and me and of the earth of each. 



86 



HYMENEALS 



XLIII 

FOR thereby is responsibility 
Acknowledged, not for mere perpetuance, 
But thus best for the alteration ever 
Evolved through each recomplication of 
The inherent interplay. And thus is earth 
Through thee and me, as we through each and 

earth, 
Further'd in evolution, process, by 
Love-mutuality ; the term of self 
(Truth's sole self-cognizant criterion) 
Extended by the comprehension through 
All possible imports and all processes 
Sprung of the primely mutual moralism. 



87 



LOVE POEMS 



XLIV 

And thus (for, of all purports, that we call 

Song affords most of comprehensive strength 

By recognized responsibility 

For alteration of the face of things 

Effectual in a self-projection through 

New form discover 'd !) — thus our mutual life 

Resolves itself to loftiest unrest 

(And peace thereby most perfect) in the voicing, 

By words, of winged serious intent 

Utter'd to ease the spirit of its strength 

Of universalism, its sense through thee 

Of insight into lives of sun and stars. 



88 



HYMENEALS 



XLV 

Such were the life of sun and stars, then, Sweet ! 

A life like ours which we have sweetly lived 

And live forever by the law of growth 

Through mutuality unendingly ! 

Such were the life of sun and stars ; the singing 

Of order'd purport, of self-inference 

By insight inwardly essential to 

The being of either ; as of me or thee. 

Life of the universe stands proven in thee 

And in our intercourse ; thy lyings down 

Or risings all alike inform'd of song 

Splendid with import of earth's infinite. 



89 



LOVE POEMS 



XLVI 

Firmaments spring within thee ; and in thee 
The function-vegetant ; the social pulse 
Of plasmic fervor ; and the passioning 
Transcended ; yea, the animate primal sin. 
And civilization springs regenerate, 
The human-won conventionality 
Turn'd universal in its inference 
Of comprehended other-purposes 
Interminably to the term of growth. 
These things in thee I sing, as thou art love. 
And in the singing cometh all our peace 
To procreation past the ways of earth. 



90 



HYMENEALS 



XLVII 

To procreation spiritually- 
Perfected ; self-projection, through the truth 
Of mutuality, upon the ways 
Of earth or star or sun ; proclaiming thee ! 
Song have I made in darkness heretofore 
For want of thee and thine illumining, 
Song verily — for all its partial sight, 
Its loneliness and emptiness of heart — 
Song of the spirit but because it sang 
The love-need and the prophecy of thee ! 
So, love, shall song be song though the soul faint 
And fall to future ash with sun and star ! 



91 



LOVE POEMS 



XLVIII 

The life of song abides, betwixt us both 
An infinite expression. And all things 
Unendingly contribute to the song 
Its intimate purport, as their moralism 
Responds unto intelligence of truth. 
Within our symphony each hour is art, 
Love's self-projection seen by understanding 
And utter'd in the converse of our souls 
Interpreting the years of thee and me 
By cosmic imagery. — The song begins ; 
And ends not though the final word be sung. 
Here, love, the word reacheth finality. 



92 



PATERNALS 



PATERNALS 



I 

BELOVfiD ! because thou bearest 'neath thy breast 

The life unborn that unto future time 

Shall mean my life and thine and be for us 

A subsequence and symbol wearing, sooth, 

A frame as ours commingled ; and that thou boldest 

The mystic-felt perpetuation of 

My spirit in thine ; whilst very time stands still 

Brooding the perpetuity : behoves it 

That blessing of a song from out my breast 

Befall thy spirit, I brooding there with thee 

(After annunciation, ere the birth) 

For love : my song big with the burden of thee. 



95 



LOVE POEMS 



II 

Big with thy labor as we look for it, 
Awaiting calmly, quietly the hour 
Of the new life's release ! For thus will song 
And birth-beginning to thy motherhood 
(As erstwhile my paternity, with thee) 
Be brought together in a beauty blent 
Of utmost opposition, polar wise 
Reconciled sans confusion ; as thy child 
Blends in a beauty-bourn of innocence 
My plangent passion, thy serenity, 
So may this song upon the coming birth 
Perform the miracle of benison !. 



96 



PATERNALS 



III 

FOR neither song alone unto our life 
Were bless'd, nor procreation. For of song, 
Though therein best the spirit moveth ever, 
Breathes and hath being, yet is all the world 
Therein ('soe'er the insight earn'd of moods 
And purposes of all things, ne'ertheless) 
Purely ideal : whilst our very frame 
Hath want environmental, craves response 
Real, self-independent lest we rave. 
Though of a procreation nothing seems 
Spiritual sheerly ; and the lust hath need 
Of love-expression lest it sink ashamed. 



97 



LOVE POEMS 



IV 

'Faith, of that fire which heart still finds so fair 

Must love, the mutualizing of two minds 

Alembicwise through life-community, 

Be the main purpose purifying aye 

The privy fervor of the raptured flesh. 

For in the procreation lurks at best 

A fault, false-duplication of the one. 

Some simulation of the self unique, 

Soul-supererogation, making world 

Image, not definition of the mind, 

A real sheerly. But within our love 

Springs comprehension and the stuff of song. 



98 



PATERNALS 



Springs comprehension of the twain-in-self, 
And warrant of commingling ; whence a song, 
Self's very twain-expression (being of both 
World and the soul, breath yet and spiritual). 
Coming from me to thee and in thee merging 
My love for thee, sings warrant in itself 
Of the heart-purity, companionship 
Which gives it being. Wherefore, as that first 
Paternity beyond mere lovelessness, 
Behold this second fatherhood, this proof 
Of love beyond lust. That the birth may be 
Bless'd, and the spirit of both be on the babe. 



99 



LOVE POEMS 



VI 

And thus unto thy patient motherhood, 
Calmly expectant, may this solemn hymn 
Seem something of lustration, a birth-gift 
Of that which nothing in me yet hath given 
To the new life, a spiritual peace 
Of serious insight, sense of beauty through 
The ways of men and earth. May that turmoil, 
Which heritance of the passion-fervor'd flesh 
In fatherhood hath foster'd, yield within 
The fresh-made innocence to influence 
Of song in thee ; and so my fatherhood 
Be spared of shame : seeing the babe as thee ! 



100 



PATERNALS 



VII 

FOR it would seem as though the life of song 
Were alway thine ; and only within me 
Could rage the pitiful fever of the world, 
And only from my loins might still descend 
To generations in futurity 
The tempest and the heart-ache and the pain 
Of deep desire and doubt to torture it. 
For solely through the art and part of song. 
The stimulus of beauty felt within 
All precincts of the earth and human souls, 
Solely by song had seem'd a sense of peace 
In me. But thou seemest of peace compact. 



lOI 



LOVE POEMS 



VIII 

Thyself the guerdon and the best birth-gift 
Which heart could wish to any child of man ! 
Thyself creator, if the world be made 
In any guise thine image, of a breed 
Of beauty spiritual, nobility 
No lower than of angels. For the man 
Who springs of thee springs of a womanhood 
Which knoweth to assuage the driven soul 
With draught of heart's elixir ; and to build 
On ruins of o'erwrought desire the dome 
Of daily satisfaction. That thou seemest 
Thyself song ; and thy spirit the hope I sing. 



102 



PATERNALS 



IX 

Therefore with song as it is soul of thee 
My soul draws nigh the cradle of the babe 
Purified and exalted ; by thy peace 
Myself peace-fill'd, and capable by thee 
Of ministration now sans sacrilege. 
How needs the birth lustration ? 'Tis thy spirit 
Speaks in the benison ; and mine, by thee 
Regenerate, which blesseth ! Whence the babe 
Draws of the motherhood an unmix'd peace: 
Both by the brooding of the time in thee 
Till thy fulfilment, and by proof, within 
Our love, of fatherhood by thee redeem'd. 



103 



LOVE POEMS 



And so, without sense of the pain foregone 
Nor of the frenzy of the passioning 
Precedent, nor of any old dismay, 
Nor fear of love's futurity, we brood, 
Both, as one spirit conjoin'd upon the birth ; 
In soul as song auspicious and serene — 
For all the sense of life-perpetualized. 
Of pain and passion brought unto rebirth 
By parentage' responsibility. 
Responsible to futurity indeed 
Are we, creators of a race to-come ; 
But undismay'd who know the seed of peace. 



104 



PATERNALS 



XI 

FOR peace, heart's best wish to posterity 
Was sown within thee with the father-seed 
As hath been herein sung ; that every toil 
Of the new fretful generations shall 
As our toil seal within the spirit of each 
A solace best preserved, not as through sloth 
In soft composure of all circumstance 
To soothe, but as through ever taking on 
Fresh trials and temptations of the world 
For resolution in the truth of love. 
For only comprehension yieldeth peace 
Vital ; and insight is the lamp of love. 



105 



LOVE POEMS 



XII 

Thus, whatsoever may be born in love, 
Of love that broods upon the pregnant time. 
And by love fitly nurtured, shall be fit 
To feel in every fervor of the world. 
In wide unrest and infinite desire, 
The true infinity of spirit-sense 
Appropriating unto self secure 
Experience through all environment, 
And rendering thereunto fair return 
Of furtherance and favor. Such a soul, 
Feeling the fever of the world resolved 
In mutual comprehension, is at peace. 



io6 



PATERNALS 



XIII 

And thus we (to the love that bore us both 

And both begot, each in a time and place 

Appropriate, belonging) unto them 

Who loved and made us should in thought be turn'd 

All-reverential, piously profound 

With gratitude for outlook undismay'd 

Which sow'd in us the ripening seed of love 

And with it peace. That now the seraph-flame 

We pass adown the generations, still 

Perpetuating by our reverence 

The nature of our nurturers. For they 

Bore thee to peace; and me in thy good time. 



107 



LOVE POEMS 



XIV 

Yet to the nature of our nurturers 

Offering no irony, no simulation 

False by the procreation, but a spirit 

Of onwardness and outlook vivifying 

The vision characteristic and unique 

Of earlier parentage. For, though the song 

Sings peace, with what song welcomed they the 

birth 
As it befell — save silently for love ? 
And with what worship haply beyond sound, 
Yet nowise songless, may the babe to-be 
Devise a novel beauty ? — That the way 
Of wonder waxeth, though one world enfi">-p 



io8 



PATERNALS 



XV 

Wherefore our absolute serenity, 
Sensing before and after, hath a place 
Sequent, forereaching ; and the peace we feel, 
Foundation even as purpose. — Love, allow 
The proved perfection, the finality 
Of peace to peace in every peace-fill'd place 
By provident conclusion ; and foretell 
The plenitude of blessing in the babe 
Reactionary on the benison 
Of our love, as unto the love of them 
Who bore us and begot us did our being 
Provide new plenitude where love was full. 



109 



LOVE POEMS 



XVI 

No need inhereth to our loyal love 
Of any infancy to supplement 
What of itself hath spirit articulate. 
No want of intermediary between 
Two souls self-mutual may in any sort 
Warrant the procreation. But where love 
Is most complete there ever beyond love 
Love enters and fulfils. So thou and 1 
Shall be but more completely in our love 
One, by the mediation of the babe 
In person of both natures ; thine and mine 
Of the one essence openly proclaim'd. 



no 



PATERNALS 



XVII 

FOR such they were from first. And such thy song 

Hath long proclaim'd them, speaking ever in me ; 

Even as the quickening beneath thy breast 

Is mine, or brooding of the pregnant time 

To thy fulfilment is my spirit in thee : 

Two miracles, two benisons alike 

Betwixt our beings' mutuality — 

My soul and thine, so strange dissimilar 

Of fever and of peace, in peace made one : 

Both in the babe and, by thee purified. 

In this birth-benison of poesy 

Offer 'd in hope unto thy motherhood. 



Ill 



MEMORIALS 



MEMORIALS 



I 

Not unto us fulfilment of our hope ; 

Not unto us ! But thou and I alone 

Face the fair springtide of the outward world 

With desolation and bereavement as 

An inward winter. Where beneath thy breast 

Lay expectation and the seed of the prime 

Quicken 'd and quickening with a prophecy, 

Remaineth only bitterness. The babe, 

Perfected though in thee, in life endured 

But one hour's span ; and now beyond all hope 

Lieth elsewhere. Therefore now a memory 

Alone abideth where our babe had been. 



115 



LOVE POEMS 



II 

Nor unto us false comfort ! For no math 

Of after-death might resurrect, restore 

A progeny reborn, to welcome us 

In worlds beyond the grave. Not unto us 

Evasion of the heaviness of loss 

As loss is final ! — Yet, if death-despite 

Demand regeneration, then within 

The spirit be despair redignified : 

As we are mortal and can cure death's sting. 

As we are earthly and can rob the grave 

Of victory (in winter's warranty 

Achieving spring!) by proud acknowledgment! 



ii6 



MEMORIALS 



III 

True is it of our babe that he endured 
But one hour's span : whereunto every hope 
Of world-hours numberless shrank minimized 
In vanishment mysterious ; every fear, 
Haply of disappointment like our own, 
Forever ended. For, in term of him, 
The laws and prophecies stand all fulfill'd 
To the uttermost ; and nought is any more 
Of any universe or soul of his, 
Save within memory. And memory 
Is grief. And grief is now of thee and me 
Alike : though mainly of thy motherhood. 



117 



LOVE POEMS 



IV 

FOR, feel as may the father, he hath borne 

No burden hourly waxing more and more 

Beneath the breast in quickening. He hath suffer'd 

No torture of the agony of birth — 

Save if by sympathy. And sympathy 

Itself is sweet, assuaging in the soul 

Some sense of sorrow. Wherefore to thy sorrow 

And pain of thine be our acknowledgment 

In praise of thy humanity, in strength 

Of that inherent beauty of our being 

Which, in ensample of thy character, 

Yieldeth a song and makes the springtime proud. 



ii8 



MEMORIALS 



Thy first great suffering, thy first great grief ; 

Borne, both, as though the nature of thy soul 

Were forthright heroism, nobility 

Essential, mounting by the body's pain 

To manifestation as of destiny ! 

Thy spirit unweaken'd of the exhausted frame, 

Learning the birth's fatality, at once 

Through the strong shock upsprung to power beyond 

Mere way of womanhood ; thy mother-love — 

Frustrate, prevented — yet enduringly 

Awaken'd, pour'd (as to the waiting world 

This springtime) on my desolated heart. 



119 



LOVE POEMS 



VI 

So, for the first fruits of the victory 

This soul-deep sympathy ; pain, now in turn, 

Made intimate, inwoven ; that our hearts 

Even beyond first marriage of our hope 

And joy, become by sorrow mutualized, 

One woof of recognition — in thy grief 

And conquest, mine (the lesser, weaklier grief) 

Strengthen'd and purged and purified ; whilst thine 

Blooms to an over-brooding providence 

Of firmament-creation, resurrection 

Evolved from out the grave of birth-and-death, 

A spring-world and re-marriage of the soul. 



120 



MEMORIALS 



VII 

Of old, indeed, hath there been to our souls 

True marriage, everything of hope and joy, 

Love and the life of love-companionship 

Our mutual heritage ; but grief and pain 

(Save if in pettier purports of an hour) 

Have been far from us. Yet a brief hour's span 

Hath given us grief unto the end of time 

For love's amelioration, for increase 

(By depths new-found of spirit-fundament) 

Of spirit-intercourse, community 

Of love with love within the married soul. 

That thou and I by loss have won new worlds. 



121 



LOVE POEMS 



VIII 

So, to the springtime turn we, inwardly 
Feeling the barrenness of winter born 
To warranty of world-fecundity. 
Ever as in the heavens the loftier sun 
Waxes with heat and light, and under him 
The birds and blossoms and the gossamer greens 
Flourish, and all is foison ; so within 
Our warmth of sympathy the season sings 
Assurance of our winter and therethrough 
Upsprings to heroism, nobility 
Born of our understanding, recognition 
And proud acknowledgment of mutual pain. 



122 



MEMORIALS 



IX 

And, if our life be aye experience, 
Day by day universal more, more fill'd 
Of complication and of cumulance 
Which hath but value as we warrant it 
By growth in the spirit comprehending each 
Entail — so systematic, so enwoof'd 
With inference and meaning of the whole ; 
If life be soul's-world at unending growth, 
Then be this insight of the deeps of soul, 
By sorrow won, but in our onwardness 
A welcome proof of world-vitality, 
A faith and a fulfilment as we live. 



123 



LOVE POEMS 



An opportunity to prove of soul 

Its fair creatorship, its furtherance 

Of beauty in reason of bereavement (as 

Winter createth spring) involving yet 

Subtlier and deeplier the throb of song, 

The pulse of art wherewith we tune the world 

Best to our image ! And the sun of love, 

Ever advancing up the firmament, 

Quickens the spirit of earth till birds and trees 

Are redolent ; within our soul of grief 

A wellspring of creation, thou and I 

Onmoving as with cosmic melodies. 



124 



MEMORIALS 



XI 

Before us, then, fresh faith ; beneath thy breast 

Not bitterness, but resolution, born 

Of power to snatch of death the victory 

And face with fearlessness a world beyond 

All sting of the grave. Our sorrow's heaviness 

But founds more firmly everything of life 

Which furnish'd love ; and in the seeds of love 

Lie furtherance and foison, plenitude 

Of dignity and splendor of increase 

Unto the mutual spirit. That thy face 

Lifts, from the sun-warm'd earth that holds thy babe, 

Unto the sun that holds both babe and thee. 



125 



LOVE POEMS 



XII 

UNTO the sun which thou and I can feel 

Above us as within us, all about 

In splendor empyrean. For we stand 

In meaning of bereavement (as, long since, 

One touch of hand to hand reveal'd our love !) 

Reveal'd each unto each. And grief-to-grief 

Proves spirit-procreation, each in each 

An hope, not now solely of sweet and fair. 

But of despair, sweetest and fairest yet 

Of all love's unionings, an universe 

Illumined, yea, and quicken'd through and through 

Beneath thy breast and mine in parenthood. 



126 



MEMORIALS 



XIII 

The parenthood remaineth. Bring we forth 

Through the long springtide of a years three-score, 

May be, such sweet memorial of our babe 

As dignifieth grief in utterance, 

As wins a world by comprehension ! Sweet, 

Turn to the undertaking of a life. 

Fulfilment of a future. Let the hope 

Of motherhood, frustrate, prevented now. 

Yield fruit of song that, garnering up our griefs, 

Soweth them new broadcast upon the earth 

Through waiting winters, that a fivefold spring 

Revive of beauty in the burden of them. 



127 



LOVE POEMS 



XIV 

For all were beauty, sweet, that of thy soul 
Is ever born ; for everything of thee 
Resembieth thee in truth heroical 
And humanism essential. And the world 
Hath so a tale of splendor, character 
Establish'd at the acme, and a song 
Made ready to its heart beyond all song ! 
Let me be but thy poet (as the spring 
Floodeth with melody this winter's-world) 
Enunciating soul's experience 
Of thee with understanding at the heart 
Of grief within thee and the grace of grief. 



128 



MEMORIALS 



XV 

Grief have I sung erstwhile ; yet never grief 
With thee to listen as thou listenest ; 
Never ere now a grief far more than shared, 
Ennobled and enraptured by a love 
Surpassing intimation. Though I sing 
Supported now by hourly intercourse 
And promptings of thy presence, yet the song — 
So dubious of the dream that grief's mere grief, 
So wondering at sympathy too sweet ! — 
Perchance may prove, not as my former song, 
Too little sorrowful, too joy'd of thee : 
That loss-acknowledgment itself seem lost ? 



129 



LOVE POEIWS 



XVI 

AND then were springtime meaningless, our loss 

No winter quickening the spirit-world 

To splendors firmamental, nor no life 

Of after-death achieved here upon earth, 

Nor resurrection out of memory 

To welcome us of progeny reborn — 

As promised of the proud acknowledgment ! 

Dear heart, forgive ! I have not yet forgot 

The patient motherhood, the burden borne 

Nor pangs of the birth. But, loving thee so much, 

1, hand-in-hand with thee, can but look forth 

To see the spring ; and sing of that I see. 



130 



MEMORIALS 



XVII 

NOR is the babe forgotten. Sun-warm'd earth, 
Somewhere that we may kneel and stoop to it, 
Holds him who was hope's heritage ; and birds 
Sing over him, and greenery about 
Breathes of the light. But thou and I must turn 
Back to ourselves that we may learn of loss 
The sweet flower-secret : seeds and sorrowing 
Of wintriness to give the world a grave 
Under the springtime. Dear, with me arise. 
Take up the world-work that the world may learn 
Of motherhood divine, as by thee shown 
Evangel : me, thy priest beside thy feet ! 



131 



MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 



MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 



BECAUSE OF A LADY IN ROME 

" Quo vadis? Soul ! who in earth's utmost parts 
" Hast visaged martyrdom so many ways, 
"Where goest ? Why toward earth's Heart of Hearts 
" Hastest with question in thy desperate gaze ? 
** What answer wouldst thou seek ? Wast not sore tried 
"An hundred times and soil'd with shame enow ? 
" Art dreaming of thy crown : that at earth's Pride 
"Thou knockest, with that desolate, ' Open Thou ! ' ? 

"Yea, 'tis the Roman road ! I take of thee 
" Thy tragic meaning ere the truth be said : 
" Life-hunger of the heart that would but be 
" Agonized, ay, liefer than dwell for dead 
" Unloving as unloved ! " — The spirit sigh'd : 
" I come, but once more to be crucified." 



135 



LOVE POEMS 



SONG OF THE TABERNACLE 

Beloved, above the wonder of thy brow 
Behold the cherubim, on either hand, 
Wrapp'd in the cloudy promise of command, 
The presence of Jehovah and the vow : 
' Ye are my chosen people ' ! And below 
The lambent wings an ever-burning brand 
(Between them, where the mercy-seat would stand) 
Lucent intensely — heatless yet as snow ! 

Fair keeper of the covenant, dear ark 

Of my commandments ! in thine honor'd face 

Are silent splendor and a prophecy 

Vouchsafed, unspoken. — Shall mine heart (who see !) 

Blaspheme importunate thy patient place : 

Faithless as one who waiteth in the dark ? 



136 



MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 



SOUL-CYCLE 

Sea-hours there are, beloved, when from the heart 
(Ah ! glad relief to love's insistencies !) 
Updrawn and of its substance griefs arise, 
Soothing our wide unrest with cooling art : 
Self-protestations of our deeper part 
Whose peace is ever troubled from the skies ; 
And whelm and swoon upon us and demise 
Fresh strength for sufferance to ease our smart. 

Thus o'er the weltering of ocean's power 
Yon crownM clouds, the wing'd spring-harbingers, 
Horizon-sprung rear sunward overarch 'd ; 
Empurpling, shadowy, the glistening hour ; 
And rain purgation by bequest perverse : 
Waters, to waters that themselves are parch'd. 



137 



LOVE POEMS 



TO JANE ON A JOURNEY 

Unto an isle of the Hesperides 

Thou guidest me ; and there a garden showest 

Rich with enchantment of all wonder-trees 

Of flower and fruit, where loftiest and lowest 

Alike exhale an honey-scented breeze 

Bird-redolent with music. Thou bestowest 

Also this sun's serene benignities 

Upon the ancient darkness that thou knowest. — 

The ancient barrenness ! — I greet thy garden 
With sense of rescue from the salt-sea wave ; 
With salutation ; but with prayer for pardon 
That I received more greatly than I gave. 
Yet, being compassion'd, might a mere man harden 
His heart to rob thee of thy right to save .? 



138 



MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 



TO JANE AT HOME 

LOVE ! whilst the hours away thou softly sleepest 
Lull'd by the wildering of the rain without, 
And the dear secret of thy dreams still keepest 
And what thy breath doth busy thee about : 
Behold, I anguish, deeplier yet and deepest 
Searching the centre with the soul of doubt — 
Till into my perplexity thou leapest 
With sudden love, and turn'st the tempter out ! 

Mute preacher ! thou, beyond the waking power 
Of proof or dogma, proselytest faith ! 
High dreamer, who to dream away an hour 
Savest a soul ! — The very storm-wind saith 
Peace. And the petulance of the passing shower 
Speaks the serenity within thy breath. 



139 



LOVE POEMS 



TO JANE IN ABSENCE 

I 

Lifeless the day without or sound or sight 
Of thee, beloved ! Every sunniest thing, 
These myriad-musick'd voices of the spring. 
But darkness and a silence ! Earth's delight 
Is vacant of mine heart's prerequisite 
And cannot thrill me though creation ring — 
Day and the vault of air fore-echoing 
Chiefly thy lonely chamber and the night. 

Empty the day, and night yet emptiest ! 

But with the long'd-for coming of the morn 

Neareth the moment of an earth reborn 

To rapture of thy presence ! — Wouldst thou rest 

All-time at home, ne'er were our life forlorn. 

But death — then resurrection : these are best. 



140 



MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 



TO JANE IN ABSENCE 

II 

AND truly I see and hear thee overall 

And everywhile, an immanence benign 

Of faith, an immortality divine 

Believed-in, and an hope millennial 

To bear me up in wisdom lest I fall 

Along this ill-illumined hour of mine : 

Which, wanting thee, in each least guiding line 

Lacks for thy law responsive at the call. 

So, dear, I see thee where thy feet have trod 
The turf to sudden flowers ; where thy voice 
Led on the woodland choirs to rejoice 
Hear I thy presence as a causal god. 
So, though to bide afar be now thy choice, 
Need love be blinder than thy meanest clod ? 



141 



LOVE POEMS 



TO JANE IN SICKNESS 

LOVE, all the night-long hath thy fever'd brain 
Prevented sleep ; whilst ! in impotence 
Of sympathy (distraught for Why or Whence), 
Helpless to heal have watch'd with thee in vain. 
And thou, throughout thy suffering, hast lain 
Grateful at each crude aid's impertinence ; 
Wishful, if but for care's love-inference, 
Almost that misery might never wane. 

Though now the soul-hour passes ;. for the day 
Comes unto thee with promise of relief 
In sweet sleep-prophecy. And I my way 
Take up with somewhat of a sense of grief 
Because the night is gone — but bearing hence 
The secret of the Mystery of Painv^ 



142 



MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 



ON MY CHILD 

One hour of birth and death ; and then no more. 

All the world's wonders multitudinous, 

Its mysteries and meanings marvellous 

Summ'd in a breath, a cry : and all is o'er, 

A sleep and a forgetting as before : 

A wonder and a void mysterious 

Of loss and grief unto the hopes of us, 

The love that form'd him and the pains that bore. 

Yet hath there been unto the sum of life 
A meaning added and a truth begun 
In virtue of bereavement : to a wife 
The marvel of a motherhood ; to me 
An unforgetting — who still hear and see 
Ever the breath and heart-beat of a son. 



143 



LOVE POEMS 



TO JANE: IN CONFESSION 

LO ! I have sinn'd against thee. For my speech 
Offendeth thee and bringeth to thine eyes 
Scorn with distress : that our complacencies 
Are troubled, and within the heart of each 
Is bitterness. E'en though I may beseech 
Forgiveness, for just cause thy charities 
Are frozen at the fount. So in no wise 
Thy tenderness can my contrition reach. 

But then the melting — in thy tears of ruth 
My spirit rapt away and soft embalm'd, 
Wash'd all but stainless of the taint of shame, 
Despite transgression. And with me the blame 
Ta'en to thyself ! — That, now our hearts are calm'd, 
Write I this song : to register the truth. 



144 



MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 



TO JANE: IN TEMPTATION 

Beloved, almost I hope I may die first 
Before thee. The bare dread of life-alone 
Impairs in me some sweetness of our own 
Life-comradeship, anticipates the worst, 
And well-nigh alters to a fear accurst 
Our realized elysium. — Thou hast shown 
What life is. Liefer far death's fate-unknown 
Than death-in-life more certain-felt than erst. 

Beloved, almost I hope I first may die 

And leave to thee the deathliness I dread — 

I heartlessly invoking on thy head 

The doom thy deathless love devotedly 

Hath from my heart averted ! — Shall the dead 

Deserve thy hate : that, living, love as I ? 



145 



LOVE POEMS 



CONSUMMATION 

NOT alway thus unto a man is given 

The complementation of a womanhood — 

Save as she still excels, in every mood 

His mate. Not alway hath the spirit striven 

With sinwardness' self-hatred, inly riven 

Beyond all finite peace — yet straightway stood 

Within the very paradise of good, 

Grasp'd in an infinite grace, confess'd and shriven. 

Not alway thus : but only unto him 

Who in the lonely longing steadfastly 

Hath not despair'd of love ; who, stern with fate, 

Held through the darkness with insistence grim 

The vision as of saviorhood by thee. 

He only yieldeth womanhood a mate. 



146 



MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS 



SUNION 
I 

Above the breadth of old Poseidon's blue 

Uprears a promontory, gaunt and gray, 

With brow grim-beetling. Ever far away 

Loom the dim lands of men ; that very few 

May chance to visit it. But thereunto 

Repair the airs of heaven ; the sun by day 

And stars at eve ; or oftentime may stay 

A delicate mist (whenas the moon is new) 

Momently on its summit. And the hand 

Of hope hath heap'd unto the sea-god's might 

An altar there in marvel ; and thereo'er 

Are wind-worn columns crumbling icy-white 

And wonderful, whose tops the sea-birds bore. 

And priests have pray'd there in an awesome band. 



147 



LOVE POEMS 



SUNION 
II 

Pray'D — scarce in vain. For to that loneliest spot 

Of elemental grandeur, at the prayer, 

Hath come divine response and rested there 

With promise of fulfilment unforgot. 

Not as the evanescent mists, and not 

As sea-birds hovering in the homeless air, 

But as the circumambience everywhere 

Of ocean hath come godship to my lot. 

Within my heart divinity who find 

No more unto Poseidon need I vow ! 

Who feel the sea-god in the souls of both, 

To us eternally auspicious now ! — 

Beloved, for thine the altar of our troth 

High in the ice-white temple of the mind ! 



148 



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